


in the woods somewhere

by bleuboxes



Category: Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, Pining, also wally is precious and i love him, artemis is kind of Going thru it but shes dealing, kind of sort of projecting but its okay, ten year old me is THRIVING rn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 11:19:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21427369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bleuboxes/pseuds/bleuboxes
Summary: It starts during the graveyard shift, as all the terrible, horrible, no-good things in Artemis’s life do.The problem, however, does not start with locating these books, which is proving easier than she anticipated. The problem starts when she runs straight into another person – another person who has a nice muscly chest, who knocks her (and the books she’s got piled in her arms) right onto the floor, who bends down to help her pick up all the books that spilled all over.It starts with the person with the coppery red hair, with the prettiest green eyes, and with the most freckles she’s ever seen.
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Wally West
Comments: 8
Kudos: 63





	in the woods somewhere

**Author's Note:**

> forwarning: this was written while i was hopped up on tenderness so it might not be coherent. listened to a lot of hozier and tender mcr songs (bc theyre BACK BABY!!!!!!) bc im really feeling it. 
> 
> anyway. 
> 
> let it be known that these guys were like my OTP when i was like,, 10 and i am sentimental and nostalgic by nature and yeah,,, im back into young justice. sue me. 
> 
> anyway. title is from a hozier song. this doesnt actually take place in a forest but i thought it was clever,,, maybe i am just a moron. 
> 
> ALSO: sorry for all errors. i am in college rn and i should be working on two big papers instead of doing this. time is of the essence.

She doesn’t really like the quiet, much to her own displeasure. Her life would be easier, she thinks, if she did. If she could just sit in silence, eyes closed, dead to the world around her – if she could just tune it out for a little while – she thinks that would be better.

In the quiet, she’s reminded of everything that’s gone wrong, of everything she’s not, of everything she wants to be.

She becomes blissfully (and sometimes bitterly) aware of the fact that she’s neither her father’s nor mother’s daughter – she’s let them both down; granted, her father is a terrible excuse for a human being, so there’s no love lost – but_ her mother_ – her mother deserves better than Jade and Artemis. She becomes aware of the fact that she probably doesn’t deserve to be here, at Stanford. She just, well, she knew a guy who knew a guy.

Not that she wasn’t smart, or able, or anything, but knowing a guy helps pay the tuition bills makes her feel a little inadequate sometimes - not that she’s complaining about that at all.

She’s forced to address her other insecurities and just stew in the fact that she doesn’t feel like she’s enough.

So, yeah. Artemis Crock doesn’t like the quiet.

* * *

The thing about working in the library is that the whole premise of the place is to keep quiet. For the most part, it’s a good gig. She’s got the graveyard shift, so it’s usually not that busy; only the nerds and the really, really stressed out students that give a shit about something or other are here, so Artemis is usually able to sit behind the check-out desk and study. No one’s loud, no one comes and bothers her while she’s doing her readings, no one makes a mess, or causes a ruckus, or more generally drives her up a wall.

That’s until she stops working her shift with Sam (who’s apparently dropped out because of some family problem. She feels bad; they got on well together) and picks up a shift with Zatanna Zatara - who is pretty porcelain skin, jet black hair, red lips, and fancy clothes – even five hours into the worst shift in the world.

Zatanna Zatara who attracts all the wackos to the desk in the middle of the night while Artemis is trying to study for her stats exam.

Zatanna Zatara who introduces Artemis to Dick Grayson (who she kind of sort of already knows – they went to the same high school) and Wallace Rudolf West.

* * *

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning on a Friday. Artemis is wishing she was back in her room, deep in blissful, dreamless sleep under the warm, fluffy blankets of her bed. Instead she’s here, in the library, working. Zatanna is going through the labyrinth of shelves looking for a book that one of the professors had requested, so it’s just Artemis manning the desk at the moment.

And here comes Dick – who she vaguely recognizes. They haven’t ever really met – they do mutually follow each other on Instagram, though – so they aren’t complete strangers - just the type of strangers who know of each other, and nothing else. The type of strangers that don’t talk to each other, just smile and nod as they walk past.

Dick comes up to the front desk; he’s weird, but nice. He's grown up quite a bit since the last time she had seen him three years ago – his shoulders have filled out, he’s toned and muscular now. He looks like one of those CrossFit buff’s in her Chaucer class, actually. He’s got bright blue eyes, still full of as much mischief as she remembers.

He looks good. And she’s surprised with herself when he offers him a genuine hello and a smile to go along with it.

That’s apparently all the encouragement Dick needs to engage in conversation with her. He fills her in on all the blanks – his major (criminal justice) his height, his workout regimen and how fucking annoying his roommate is.

Artemis feels that on a personal level – roommates can be the _worst. _

(She had a terrible experience freshman year, okay? There’s a reason she can’t listen to Lady Gaga anymore.)

But yeah, Dick is nice. Artemis doesn’t mind that he’s interrupting her study time.

The noise provides a nice distraction.

Zatanna comes not soon after, and it becomes apparent to Artemis that there’s something happening between these two – she’s not sure what because their flirting is the strangest that she’s ever seen before.

And that’s saying something.

Artemis pays it no mind, though – she likes the background noise and is able to get back to work; Chaucer waits for no woman.

* * *

It’s not until later that she meets Wally.

Wallace Rudolf West.

Originally from Kansas.

Track and Field star.

Absolute motherfucking _asshole_.

* * *

It starts during the graveyard shift, as all the terrible, horrible, no-good things in Artemis’s life do. She’s checking the shelves for books that several professors have requested. Locating them proves to be a challenge, as they’re scattered across the library – granted, it’s a systematic scatter, but the library is big, it is late, and Artemis is dead tired.

The problem, however, does not start with locating these books, which is proving easier than she anticipated. The problem starts when she runs straight into another person – another person who has a nice muscly chest, who knocks her (and the books she’s got piled in her arms) right onto her ass on the floor, who bends down to help her pick up all the books that spilled all over.

It starts with the person with the coppery red hair, with the prettiest green eyes, and with the most freckles she’s ever seen.

Artemis would like to interject that she usually doesn’t just look at people like that – she doesn’t analyze how pretty or attractive they are at first glance – but it _was_ late, and she was tired and had just fallen to the floor – _so what_ if her assailant was pretty and considerate? She’s allowed small moments of weakness.

“Hey,” he asks, there’s some type of accent there – one that she can’t really pick up on, “I’m sorry, you alright?”

“Yeah,” she groans as she gets to her feet, and bends over, helping him pick up the remaining books, “Thanks.”

“No problem.”

They both stand up, he offers to help her carry the books back to the desk – she objects, but he insists. She fights the smile that she feels coming on, but relents and allows him to help.

It’s at this point where he introduces himself as Wallace – or Wally, to his friends. Chem major with an English minor because he hates himself. He’s from Kansas originally, but moved to Gotham during his teenaged years. He goes to Stanford on a track and field scholarship with a friend from high school (who he mentions might be among the library shelves with a girl that he’s recently become enamored with.)

Artemis’s mind immediately goes to Zatanna and Dick, but it’s too much of a coincidence to be true.

She introduces herself too – as Artemis. English Major. Also from Gotham. She doesn’t get into the nitty-gritty like he does. He’s barely a stranger and, well, she barely likes to explain who she is to her actual friends, let alone someone like Wally who she has only just met.

No matter how much she kind of wants to.

They get to the desk, and he drops the books off idly on the front counter while Artemis walks around behind with hers.

He stands there idly, probably looking for a cue to say something else or to leave. Artemis isn't sure what she wants him to do, so she utters her thanks, takes the books, and organizes them before sitting down.

He gives her an enthusiastic, “_You’re welcome_,” before he bids her goodnight.

“See you around, Artemis.” He says.

“Bye, Wally,” she responds.

(She tries to get back into the groove of Chaucer, but it’s just not working.)

* * *

Artemis should note that Wallace Rudolf West is not _actually_ an asshole.

He is just, very nice, and also somehow gets more insufferably annoying the more she sees of him (as he has taken to calling her _babe_ to bother her or something) – and she isn’t really used to it.

Also he is very pretty. 

She isn’t used to this kind of attention.

Regardless, as the semester drags on, he keeps showing up to her shifts at the library.

As it turns out, his friend from high school is, in fact, Dick Grayson. It’s through this that they then spend time conversing about how they never crossed paths back in Gotham. He utters something about how she was a year above him, and he was an athlete – they were part of different crowds.

She doesn’t mention her flirtations with juvenile delinquency, the issues she had with staying in school, and the other reasons why she never really hung around school all that much. It was a brief refuge to learn and to get away from the quiet.

Anyway – she tells him it’s better that he didn’t know her then. She was pretty bristly.

(Grayson has the nerve to call her an asshole. She glowers, but he’s right. Wally laughs from over the counter, elbow propped up with his chin resting in his palm. He looks cute.

“Not our Artemis,” he gasps in mock disbelief.

“Shut up,” she laughs.)

Not that she isn’t bristly still – she’s got baggage. She’s had a life, and the circumstances did shape her – granted, not as much as her father would have liked, but enough to give her a lifetime's worth of trouble and trauma.

She wonders, sometimes, why Wally keeps hanging around her – when she’s not trying to cover up the fact that she’s staring at how stupidly pretty he looks, she’s being a complete ass-wipe to him, and he takes it.

He takes and he takes and he takes it all with a smile and a witty quip ending in _babe._ He’s there to fill the quiet of the night, when it’s just her and the darkness. He’s noise and brightness and everything that Artemis wishes she was – carefree, lovely, and incandescently happy.

It makes her heart hurt.

* * *

Wally doesn’t just meet her in the library.

He’s there for lunch. He joins her and Zatanna (and also Dick, by extension) when they decide to go out on Thursdays or Saturdays. He’s at her flat, draped over her couch like an old, heavy blanket complaining about his chem homework while she puts the finishing touches on her Chaucer essay on the floor as _Tom and Jerry _plays loudly on the TV in the front of the room.

He is everywhere, and even when he is not with her, Artemis carries him in her heart. He is a friend, a real and true wonderful friend, and she absolutely doesn’t know what she did to deserve him.

He walks her to class, to work, and to other places; she does all that she can to brush up against him – to look into his eyes when he laughs, full of mirth and wonderment and happiness. She wants to learn from him – learn how to be better. She wants to hold his hand, and run her hand over his cheeks, his arms, his chest – wants to place her hand over his heart and say that she really, truly cares for him – in all senses of the word.

(She also wants to kiss him but that’s a thought that she sets on the back-burner most of the time.)

* * *

There are things that she lets slip to Wally the longer she knows him.

Like around Thanksgiving, she mentions that she isn’t going home for break offhandedly, with a small quip about how she doesn’t really have a home to go back to. He doesn’t really say anything, just stops munching on his salt and vinegar chips and looks at her from across her dining table.

(Two weeks later, he’s in her kitchen – almost drunk off of two large glasses of wine - laughing like a loon while she tries to make stuffing.

Needless to say she is _not _a culinary master.)

He does other things, too – smaller things of similar natures. 

The more she says, the more he does, and Artemis has never felt so loved in her life.

* * *

In the rare instances where Wally is not at the library with her (which is mostly during her graveyard shift – she doesn’t blame him), Zatanna keeps teasing her about Wally, and Artemis has to keep reiterating that no, he is _not _her boyfriend.

She is not good at being omniscient. Zatanna notices the blush tinting her cheeks as she bashfully looks down at the desk. She hears her friend laugh and mention something off handedly about owing Dick thirty bucks.

“Aww, honey,” Zatanna laughs, “no need to be embarrassed!”

“Shut _up_,” Artemis mutters, “You can’t say anything.”

“What are we, 13?”

“No. He just –“ she pauses, “he can’t know, okay? I need to be ready for him to know.”

While Zatanna is ridiculous and pushy and looks like she definitely knows something that Artemis doesn’t, she isn’t one to be an asshole. She looks Artemis in the eyes, gives her a reassuring smile, and says, “I understand.”

* * *

(A brief interlude:

Wally, has, on occasion, been the one to tie her hair up and rub her back as she vomits, body splayed on the bathroom floor, after going out.

She is notorious for being open and honest when she’s had a bit too much to drink. And Wally – well, Wally is touching her and comforting her – and it just feels so nice, to be touched and cared for by another.

“You rubbing my back,” she slurs, head still resting on the toilet bowl, eyes closed, “is _so_ sexy.”

He doesn’t respond.

“You’re so sexy,” she continues before retching once more.

She thinks he laughs, but he keeps rubbing her back. In the quiet, he hums Frank Sinatra in her ear.

She loves him, she thinks.

She says as much.

Wally doesn’t sleep that night.)

* * *

Artemis is not freaking out, okay?

She doesn’t freak out.

She is cool, calm, and collected – except for the times she isn’t.

She just –

She just confessed her love for Wallace Rudolf _fucking _West at 3:45 in the morning on the Tuesday before Christmas in the middle of the library and he has the _audacity_ to pull a Han _fucking_ Solo on her and hit her with a “_I know, babe,_” before absolutely sweeping the ground out from beneath her with the tenderest of kisses.

Considered her wooed. Consider her royally fucked. Consider her totally, unbelievable in love and confused and happy.

He’s edging away from tender now, as his one hand make their way through her hair, and her hand intermingles with his own, pushing him up against the bookshelf, hand adjacent with his head.

He’s smiling against her lips, but she can’t bring herself to stop kissing him. He gently bites her bottom lip, and she lets out a tiny noise – one that she’s rather embarrassed about (and that he will never stop bringing up)

“Shh, babe,” he whispers, then quickly kisses her once more. He’s looking at her now, green eyes peer into her own grey ones – she has never felt this raw before, “It’s a library. We gotta be quiet.”

“You’re full of shit, Wally.”

“You know it, babe.”

She kisses him this time – brief and exciting and new. Books behind them shift as she gets more careless and rough. He lets out a little breathless moan and Artemis just wants to be held like this forever.

“I don’t think I said it back,” he interrupts.

“It’s alright,” she smiles, counting the freckles on the bridge of his nose, “I know.”

He pulls her close now and kisses the top of her head. Around her, the library is quiet – the sound of a stray sneeze or the turning of a page interrupts the silence, but for once the absence of sound is comforting.

It’s better, she thinks, when you’re not alone.

**Author's Note:**

> tee heee..... books and trees. reminds me of that library ep of doctor who,,,,, 
> 
> anyway. comments and kudos are the bee's knees!!!!
> 
> also heres a plug for my[wally/artemis playlist ](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4mKFFZWPIm9ALnTVPUy38k?si=oQGBPQNWQuSFVaRQG1Gblw)


End file.
